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Thanks for your ideas and thoughts I guess I'm just scared as a new boater of being on my own in a lock and opening the paddles only for the ropes not to be long enough and fall down into the lock and the boat to move away from the sides meaning I can't get back to the boat and worst case scenario it rushing towards the cill and sinking. Probably being paranoid! but I've found what seems obvious when you've been doing stuff for a while isn't necessarily when you're really new to stuff and on your own so I thought it would be good to have a long rope to hold onto for peace of mind. I've not been through locks on my own and the ones I'll be going through seem quite wide and deep. Just thought some more experienced single handed boaters with shorter boats might have some advice, not really looking for the most efficient way to do things just the safest and most fool proof.

Hi everyone I am thinking to get an extra long centre line so when I am single handed locking I can wrap it around a bollard and be able to take it with me to the paddles. I was wondering what a good length would be as I'm not sure how much lock layout and depth varies? The boat is 27 feet if that makes a difference.

I was wondering how stoppages work- CRT has a listing for watford locks being closed from 05/11-14/12. I understand the locks being closed but on their map they're showing the area being closed as all the way from the locks down to norton junction which seems like a long way if they're only working on the locks? Does that seem like it might be a mistake or normal for stoppages? I don't want to rush through the area if I don't have to but equally don't want to be trapped between the locks and norton junction or worse have crt tow my boat away for being in the wrong place 😅 (https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notice/13022/lock-1-to-lock-7-watford-locks-leicester-line-grand-union-canal) Anyone have ideas what it might mean?

I need to paint my 27 foot narrowboat as the paint on at the moment is just an undercoat from the previous owner. I was wondering if it would be possible to hand sand it in order to 'key' it? I'm not looking for a particularly professional finish and the current paint doesn't look in a particularly bad state 🙂. I want to avoid buying a sander if it all possible as cordless ones seem really expensive and mains ones kind of impractical. If it is possible does anyone have suggestions for good sanding stuff to use?

To clear up the mystery it is a small boat, but not a grp, it's a 27' narrowboat. My username might be a clue as to what kind
I did literally just mean hob, as in no oven etc. Unfortunately the gas lockers are quite small and not tall enough for larger gas bottles although that would be a good idea.

Hi everyone,
thanks for all your suggestions and advice turns out it was an empty gas bottle! it's quite small 3.9kg so maybe the surveyor doing the gas test emptied it because the hobs were running for a while. the other bottle was actually full so no need to suspect foul play

Hi all
Thanks for your suggestions so far.
In terms of the hob, on this set up there's no way to turn the switch/ dial without pressing it down. My process has been to switch on the lighter and hold it by the flame ring, press down the dial and turn it to flame and then wait for a few seconds but nothing happens or, rarely, it feels like it might be starting to ignite but stops without me turning the switch off.
In terms of the gas I can't hear the hiss but can still smell it a bit. I knew about the gas bottles possibly running out but was thinking it would be too much of a coincidence for them to run out straight after the survey, maybe not though! I've got two gas bottles and from weight they seem roughly the same which could either mean they're both empty or both relatively full. The hob is my only gas appliance.

I'm completely new to boating and having trouble with something very basic which is lighting the hob for cooking. It's a vanette 4000/2 and at the survey a few weeks ago the hob rings were working happily which I saw with my own eyes. However now I can't get any of the rings to light and haven't been able to do so since moving in a couple of days ago. There's four rings and I can't get any of them to light.
There's no ticking sound for the ignition suggesting it might not be working which I don't mind, but I've tried manually lighting the hob with a long lighter which I'm also used to using at home and nothing happens. I do feel like I can smell gas coming out of the ring as normal when the switch is turned, although I can't hear it flowing. I've only tried this for at most 5, 10 seconds at a time as I'm scared of filling the boat with gas.
Does anyone have any ideas what might be happening? No suggestions too basic as like I say I'm a complete novice and feel like it's probably something obvious as the surveyor a few weeks ago got the hob working with no problems.